I had heard through V-Flyer that it was possible to get business class fares much cheaper flying from continental Europe than from London and a quick poke around Expedia proved this to be the case. I had begun to wonder if my annual jaunt to San Francisco was going to be a non-starter given the fares and the new APD rules even during a fare sale but through Expedia I would be paying the price I did some three or four years ago. Even better, it was priced in euro so no nasty surprises at the currency conversion and no excessive credit card fee. Result!
The fare was booked to start in Amsterdam and when the confirmation email came through the PNR was there and seats allocated for the VS flight. They weren’t the ones I would have chosen myself but a quick flick over to the Manage my Booking page on the website soon sorted that. Flights on Aer Lingus were booked and the CitizenM hotel reserved and it was all systems go.Prior to the flight there was a bit of a stand-off between me and BA as we eyeballed each other over the question of seats. I am barely in the door with their Executive Club and therefore they wanted €25 off me for the privilege of selecting my seat - a price I was unwilling to pay. At first it didn’t matter as the Club Europe cabin was empty but as the weeks progressed it filled up at an alarming rate until about 3 weeks before the flight the only seats left were the exit row and the row behind. I started a little bit of a mild panic wondering if I would be downgraded but eventually decided as it was only roughly about an hour’s flight, it wasn’t worth getting het up about. Nearer the date some passengers started playing musical chairs as an exit row seat was taken and 1A freed. I must admit I nearly faltered then and the next day when the person in 2F took 1A but when I did OLCI the following morning (and scoring SEQ6 at 6:20 am!) 2F was mine.
That evening I headed over to ORK courtesy of Aer John and had a perfectly acceptable Aer Lingus flight over to Amsterdam. The flight left on time, arrived early and I had a G&T. What more could I want? This was the first time I had collected bags in AMS and was most impressed by the monitors at the baggage carousel which indicated how many minutes it would be before our bags came through - and they were right. Once through the secure area and into the main concourse I turned right and made my way to the CitizenM hotel which is clearly marked and only a few minutes walk away. While the Sheraton is directly opposite the main area I was more than happy with the CitizenM and may well do a review at a later time.
The next morning having had too little sleep thanks to the bulb in my bedside light which blew and plunged the whole room in darkness necessitating the services of an engineer and also the little matter of two G&Ts, a mojito and a caipirinho
- the latter bought by a business man who often works in Brazil and recommended it to all the ladies in the bar and insisted we partook - I made my way just after 5:30am back to the airport ready for my BA flight. I sussed out pretty quickly that BA checks in at desks 21 which fortunately is at the same side to the entrance from CitizenM but nearly fainted at the long lines that seemed to be there. Grabbing what wits were left to me I reckoned there must be a Business Class line and having skirted round the queue found it and what is more, it was empty. I had fully expected that BA would only check my bags as far as LHR as in the past they had been unwilling to do so even when I had been on the same PNR but all of a sudden I realised that she had printed baggage tags through to SFO. 
Knowing that the routing of the tags into priority bins is determined by the bar code on the tag I asked her to check mine only as far as LHR. After all I would still have to check in at LHR so I might as well have my bags with me.Once checked in and in possession of my boarding pass I headed for the lounge. Oh, my! What a long walk. The guy who had been behind me at check-in caught up with me and opined we were walking to London! I felt he was nearly right. Eventually we found the lounge which was small and at that time of the morning, very quiet. We were welcomed in but the lounge dragon got very narky with me when I went a few minutes later to ask for the wi-fi password - after all, I was disturbing a rather nice chat she was having with a friend.
Coffee, tea, fruit juices and snacks were there on a self service basis but apart from a rather indifferent coffee, I had nothing. At about 6:30 am people started drifting from the lounge in the absence of any announcements for the long trek to gate D16, where again there was a long line given that security is undertaken at the gate. We joined it and in the fullness of time, I was given a pat down and my shoes x-rayed because I had caused the machine to beep but that was all (Remember this. It is important in my VS trippie) Just as I and my new friend from the lounge were through boarding was announced for Club Europe passengers which of course meant that the whole lounge stood up. They were asked to sit and although some of them did, many of them nearer the door didn’t in the forlorn hope that BA would take pity on them and board them to ease the congestion. BA didn’t but of course we had to battle our way through to be admitted and welcomed on board.Once ensconced in 2F no drinks were offered and when boarding was completed the captain said there would be a delay for 2 no-shows and their bags would be off-loaded. When that was done we pushed back about five minutes late and trundled along for 15 minutes to the runway. We were number three to take-off but just as we were about to turn on to the runway one of the passengers stood up and it looked for one minute as if the take-off would be aborted but fortunately he responded to the cabin crew’s screech and behaved himself
After take-off the cabin crew busied themselves and prepared for breakfast. There was no drinks run in Club Europe and given the shortness of the flight, I did not expect one. Breakfast was disgusting. It consisted of a sausage burnt on the top and raw underneath on top of scrambled eggs and a half cooked rasher of bacon, tomatoes, mushrooms and fried potatoes all sitting in a pool of oil......
….. but it was piping hot as were the breads offered to us. There was also fruit and yoghurt as well as orange juice and water. The coffee was lukewarm. I barely picked at the meal.
We landed a few minutes late on what I call the “far runway” - the one not alongside the Bath Road and soon were at T5 at a gate at the main terminal and not one of the satellites where you have to wait for a train. Baggage seemed to take for ages to come through but my bag had a priority label on it and soon I was on my way to the HEX where I had to wait 15 minutes for a train. The train stopped just outside the platform for T3 for a good 5 minutes because there was another train “on the platform” Apart from the idiocy of the train being on the platform I wondered where in the blazes it had come from given that we had had such a long wait at T5 but after that I ceased to wonder as I was soon pushing open the doors into T3 and giving myself up to the tender mercies of Virgin Atlantic. After all, things could only get better....
…..couldn’t they?
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